Looking for something original for your four year-olds birthday? Get your Squash-plush toys while they’re still fresh off the tarmac. Twitch the Raccoon was the first to be scraped off the road. But now there’s a new not-so-cuddly toy in town. His name is Grind the Rabbit. If you're lucky enough to snap up one of these limited edition cuddlies you'll be pleased to know they come complete with a translucent body bag and identity tag, giving you details of the toy’s demise.
Lego is, without question one of the finest toys ever made. It is a toy that has bridged generations and stoking the imagination of children and adults alike. For me, with the exception of computer games, it's the only toy I've never stopped playing with.
This however, is unusual as toys reflect the generation and the society within which they are created. The times when children gladly spent seven years painstakingly constructing Airfix planes are as over as spotty teenagers rolling ten-sided die. Society today has attached a different value set to the meaning of fun and play. It is often argued that fun isn't what it used to be with traditionalist educators and commentators taking the line that today's fun is bad for you or certainly not as good for you as the play they had when they were growing up.
Play is violent, passive and discourages patience. Computer games have come for more than their fair share of blame. Familyresource.com, an American website offering advice to families on topics like childcare and education conclude that games have hidden evils not detectable by all other than the most curious and diligent parent. Concientious parentes need to know that:
However, I'd argue that there far too much focus on the medium of play. If we look to how children engage with the products themselves we can see that many of the older values of fun have been maintained and even enhanced by new forms of play. I'd argue that Airfix kits are kits are no longer popular, not because today's youth have a lower attention capacity but because it's is too rigid a creative form for young people. Young people, with digital creation and distribution tools are putting a premium on creating like never before. According to the much cited, seldom read, Pew Internet & American Life more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly one- third of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced.In many cases,these teens are actively involved in what we are calling participatory cultures.
Lego is a great example of this, outliving Airfix because of it's famed latitude and versatility. Famously, it was a new toy everyday. in theory paint a Spitfire pink but that was about it once the wheels were super-glued to the under carriage. In fact it seems that Lego has experienced a commercial resurgence in the last few years which I believe is intimately connected to young people's desire to create and share. There is not better example of this than my friends seven year old son who spent the best part of a Saturday morning taking me through the lego stop motion videos he's made and uploaded to YouTube. I was amazed at the quality and quality of this stuff. There are hundreds, if not thousands of amateur stop motion video's on YouTube. The quality and diversity are simply astounding. Just a few gems:
Recreating a favourite scene:
TV / Toy / Film maship:
For those who think Airfix models encourage patience I suggest you have a go at Lego stop motion.
But I wonder how much Lego understands the importance of this and encourage it. In official releases and interviews they always talk about the value of the licensing deals they've done with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. These are at the centre of their marketing campaigns. Ironically, this iconic ad produced Bartle Bogle Hegarty for Lego in 1980 was hated by Lego and dropped after airing only five times. Maybe now, when Lego stop motion is for everyone (not just those making ads) they should consider running it properly.
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Daniel Heaf is a creative technologist. He was Interactive Editor for the award-winning BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra and director of digital ventures at BBC Worldwide during the acquisition of Lonely Planet. He's currently working for 4iP, Channel 4's £50M digital innovation fund. He lives in North London with his wife and two children.
